Phase Three Brewing (2023)

Looks like $11+tax per 12oz. can on the new Affinity line.

 

I've had half of the Eunoia releases, 1,2,3,7, 10. And 12. They've all been tasty adjuncted dessert beers, but barrel character has not really been their strong suit ever. This last batch 12 was at least a mild step towards the right direction with a bit of discernible barrel, but still leaving plenty of room for more...

 

The no proxy thing needs to die.....

 

Not until I get off the Ambassador waitlist in a few years! No proxy and location are the only things weeding people out in front of me.

 

I'm sure it would create some logistical nightmares, but (even as a non-local) I'd be OK with them doing 'No Proxy' for member bottles, and proxy for anything that goes to OZNR lottery.

 

Why the No Proxy for member bottles if you don't mind?

 

So, I know that when breweries open up proxy options that locals get frustrated because non-locals ruin their chances of getting it. I appreciate that take, and while the waitlist has already been curated for many years now (i.e. I'm sure no-proxy for member beers wouldn't really change anything), I'm just saying that I'd even understand if they wouldn't want to do it for memberships in order to keep those memberships local in perpetuity. Given how often people move, proxy for member bottles would create fewer new memberships each year.

Take SP for example. Lots of people love their beers, but it just isn't always practical to drive that far for a single beer - and to do it, say, 10 or 15 times a year. Although most LC members are local, I'm sure some members would for sure drop their membership if they allowed no proxies for those membership benefits/bottles. I'm aware of a few members in GA, Montana, CA, and so on.

 

“You might have seen that we made a big announcement yesterday about a brand new beer. If you haven't, here's what it is.
Affinity is a new, creative way of blending beer for us. A bridge that takes you from curvature to eunoia in one sip. For our first blend of affinity we blended nearly a 50/50 mix of young stout and barrel-aged stout that was aged for 18 months in Wild Turkey bourbon barrels before conditioning on coconut and dark matter coffee. The young portion of the stout offers a higher level of roast and dark grains to compliment the coffee while the caramelized, reduced, and micro-oxidized portion of the stout from casks mingles with the candy-like coconut flavors. Everything is in perfect harmony and we’re extremely stoked with how the first batch of affinity came out and can’t wait to share it with you.
I have seen many of you asking in the comments if you will be getting first crack at this new beer. The answer is a little grey, but in short, yes you will, but I need to explain how this will go. This was a small batch to test the waters and see how it would go, we also don't have a ton of barrel stock to use for this so again, the batch size was small. We're going to offer roughly half of the total cans packaged to Ambassadors first in an Ambassador only random draw and the rest will be available to the public as a random draw. If you do not get a can initially, in the ambassador only random draw, please feel more than welcome to try to get one when available to the public. We want to stress that if you DO get one in the ambassador only random draw, do NOT try and get a second 2pk. We will be cross checking the lists, if we see that you ended up with two, we will refund both and you won't receive either 2pk. No exceptions, please be cool.

Starting today, half of the entire stock of Affinity Blend 1 will be available through a random draw on OZNR with just Ambassadors. This random draw will run until Wednesday morning and winners will be announced shortly after. Again, if you don’t win the ambassador random draw you will be able to enter the public random draw that goes live on Wednesday evening.”

 

If you look on the first page of this thread, you will see someone posted the long email sent to those being offered Ambassador membership this year (myself included, after signing up almost 4 years ago). It says they could change that down the road, but for now they have no proxy because they want to take care of the local fans. They also need to have taproom traffic so those working there can make a living.
I'd imagine they also need to sell regular beers to stay in business. Why would they want to have the membership I just got offered, go to someone say in Fl or CA? Those people would have someone ship them their beers most likely, and rarely if ever visit the taproom.
I probably stopped in every 4-6 weeks last year and would spend anywhere from 30 to 100+ each time, and tip the staff working there. That was when I was not a member. I imagine my frequency will only increase this year as a member.
It's not that I feel entitled by being localish, about a 35 minute drive. But if I was the owner, it seems like a no brainer to not offer proxies. If they had no taproom, or their stouts were not instant sellouts anyway, then I can see a brewery wanting to offer proxies.

 

Same man, I'm local and often visit the taproom. Even then, I only win Oznr bottles every 3-4 times. If you add proxies into this, I'll probably get 1 BA release every 5 years lol.

 

So, in giving this Proxy issue some additional thought, I'm kind of surprised that every membership doesn't have a hybrid system. I mean, OK, fine, some memberships might not exist without the ability to proxy, but others like SP and Phase 3 will (obviously). But, that said, sometimes you just can't make a pickup. Say there are 15 pickups a year. Why not create a hybrid system that allows for a proxy pickup for 20%? For 15 pickups, that's 3 that you can't make. Or, why not have it capped at 1 or 2 regardless of the number of bottles. Call it an "oh shit" clause. Seems like a pretty win-win solution, and no one (RIGHT?) would buy a membership just for 1 or 2 bottles (RIGHT?).

 

Who at the brewery has the time to deal with all that bullshit?

 

Hey, I get it. Comparatively, that seems pretty easy to solve.

 

I'm generally in favor of allowing proxies more often than not, but I will never begrudge a brewery operator for wanting to keep things as simple as possible. In the long run, clear simple, and consistent rules seem the fairest course for everyone and will probably result in the fewest complaints and happiest customers.

 

All good responses and insight. I was just wondering what everyone kind of felt about it. I am an original ambassador who supported them heavily as a local but has moved away and retained my memberships in hopes of being able to drive for the release windows but would of really appreciated members being able to pick up for members or something like that as the years went on.

 

Members pickup for members I can get behind.

 

Just thought inserting the honest comment on this thread was funny (whether intentional or not) and felt like pointing it out.

 

Public lottery open for affinity

 

Have heard good things about P3 stouts but haven't had any due to the rarity. But seeing an $11 basically non BA stout needing to be won in a raffle makes me question if I should even care about trying to land any of their stouts ever.